You are altogether beautiful my love; there is no flaw in you
Song of Solomon 4:7

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Nail Essentials Updated

Hey Guys!
I totally just realized today that I have been blogging for a whole year! So in order to celebrate, I thought I would redo one of my first blog posts ever: my nail essentials. If you want to take a look at the original post, click here. The things I use to take care of my nails have changed since then, and I think it would be good to update my post about them.

First off, the products I use to keep my hands moisturized. For my cuticles I use the Smith's Rosebud Salve. I got mine at Sephora, but I'm pretty sure you can get at least a similar product at Bath and Body Works. You can use this on other dry areas such as your lips and elbows and such, but I just use it for my cuticles. This is a nice creamy product that moisturizes my cuticles like a dream. It can get a little sticky, so apply it before my lotion. The lotion I use is L'Occitane Creme Mains hand cream. I like that it keeps my hands moisturized without being greasy. The only caveat: it kinda smells like bug spray. I can get over that though :) In late October when it began getting cold where I go to college, my hands got super dry, and my cuticles freaked out! I was getting hangnails left and right. These products helped me get my hands back to normal.

The nail polish remover I have been using is the CVS regular polish remover. I like this one in particular because it seems to take off my nail polish more quickly. Plus the smell is not as bad as most of the remover I have used. I never go to fancy with my nail polish remover because I am just not willing to pay the money for the OPI or Zoya ones. The cheap drugstore ones seem to work just fine for me.

Now, on to base coat. I have been using the Sally Hansen Salon Manicure base coat. I have mainly been using this one because I ran out of my OPI one and needed a new base coat, so I got this one in a pinch. It works pretty well. I like the smooth base it gives, however it seems to peel a little more than the OPI.

For top coat I have been using Sally Hansen Insta-dri anti chip top coat. I like this because it drys quickly while still giving a shiny finish to the nails. It's also a lot cheaper than the Seche Vite top coat.

I have found that for nail clippers, straight clippers are the way to go. I am not positive what brand these are, but I love them! I have noticed that curved nail clippers tend to cut my nails too short. The straight ones just give me more control.

One thing that I don't have a picture of that I use in my nail care is a glass file. I don't have a picture because I recently broke mine. That's what happens when you drop a glass file on tile dorm floor. Anyway, I find that a glass file makes my nails peel less than a normal emery board.

I hope this was informational for you, and happy one year blogiversary (close enough anyway)! Have a top notch Tuesday!
~ Mary Elizabeth